


Robin v Homework

by twriting



Series: Billionaires Gone Wild [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, Bruce Wayne is a Good Parent, Female Clark Kent, Female Dick Grayson
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:09:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22191577
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/twriting/pseuds/twriting
Summary: Being a billionaire CEO's foster kid is more complicated than she expected. There's a lot to learn about the family business. And when your foster dad is also the goddamn Batman there's a lot to learn about that too. Who knew being a vigilante involved so much work? Throw in Bruce Wayne's, um, intense personal life and things get really tricky.Dixie Grayson has a lot of questions. Some of them have answers.
Relationships: Clark Kent & Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson & Bruce Wayne, Selina Kyle/Bruce Wayne
Series: Billionaires Gone Wild [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1554868
Comments: 3
Kudos: 47





	Robin v Homework

On Sunday Bruce's friend (?) Cantrell Kent shows up with cookies. This is fine by Dixie because she likes Cantrell and she really likes Cantrell's baking. Peanut butter chip chocolate cookies!

"Someone ate half of them." Cantrell pouts at the container. "I don't mind sharing, but they should ask first. Next time I'll check the container for fingerprints."

Cantrell is always funny. But how does she get from Metropolis to Gotham and back so quickly? How does she get in the cave? Right now she just seems to be here to apologize to Bruce. Which is dumb because last month she managed to somehow take down an entire armed gang by herself and gave Bruce the credit for it. Bruce won't tell Dixie how Cantrell pulled that off, and Selina just laughed uncontrollably for about ten minutes when Dixie asked. What does Cantrell have to apologize for?

"I'm sorry I didn't take your fursona seriously - Bruce, where are you going?"

Adults are weird. Dixie tries to pretend she didn't just see Bruce stomp up to the cave's upper level and instead focuses on cleaning out the hoverbike's air intakes.

Except for maintenance and cleaning, Dixie is not allowed to touch Bruce's jet hoverbikes. One of these things costs over eight hundred thousand dollars, not including the cost of hiding the purchase and shipment. Bruce has three of them, a pair and a spare for parts. Fuel is JP-8, power is molten salt batteries, but really the things just burn pure money.

The cost isn't why Dixie can't touch them. Dixie thinks of them as the batcycles. Bruce calls them flying deathtraps. "Fast and nimble enough to get around the city. Small enough to be mistaken for a drone. Just enough endurance for a trip to and from Metropolis. Light enough to be flipped over by a stiff breeze."

Does Cantrell have one? That would explain a lot. And broke student is a way better cover for a vigilante than billionaire with an obvious grudge.

Bruce and Cantrell are in the tech wing above the cave, glaring at one another. Dixie pretends not to see them through the window. This whole thing is super awkward.

* * *

Bruce has her doing easy reps at a hundred pounds. Mostly it's so he can study Dixie's technique and breathing.

"Hold," he says. Dixie stops mid-extension. Bruce pulls out a tape measure and checks her biceps, then the overall length of her upper arm. "Okay, let's call it a night on this. Tuesday I'll have some armour parts in. We can start getting you kitted up."

Yes! "How about bag training?"

"Got your homework done?"  
  
"Of course?"

"That. Does not sound convincing."

"Eighty percent?"

"How much of that last twenty percent is due Monday morning?"

"A hundred percent?"

"Go do your homework. The speedbag can wait."

* * *

* * *

Monday, as Dixie is finishing her homework at the table, Selina visits for breakfast. Selina doesn't have a key to the manor. That never seems to stop her. Today she comes down for breakfast with Bruce, dressed in one of his old robes tied into so many layers she looks like a Jawa. A Jawa wearing cat ears. Bruce is wearing boxers and a t-shirt and slippers he should probably replace. How does a billionaire look so ratty?

Scrolling her laptop screen, Selina raises her eyebrows. "You and Julie had a thing again."

"Yes. It's called dinner with a friend."

"The Gazette has three paragraphs about it. Must have been a slow week for them."

"They've been going to shit since Glenmorgan bought them."

The breakfast room smells like Bruce's thick tea and Selina's espresso. Dixie misses the smells of her old home. Mom's horrible tar-coffee, dad's toast and pecan spread. All the things taken away from her because some people, people like Zucco, like Thorne and Cobblepot, are too entitled and greedy for steady work. Bruce calls it superstition, a gambler's mindset, looking for the big score that will give them what they think they deserve instead of doing the work of real life like everyone else.  
  
And about that real life thing. Why does she need to know some of this stuff? "Why do I need to know about polynomials?"

"The world is full of pointless bullshit," Bruce replies. "It's important that you experience a broad range of it now, so you know which experiences are the most bullshit in the future."

"Okay. That's fair."

* * *

After breakfast it's Dixie's turn to help clean the kitchen and breakfast room.

"I do light cleaning over the course of the week, a room or two at a time. Once a week Mr Wayne and I do a more thorough clean, and when needed I bring in cleaners from an agency. You will assist with the weekly chores, of course."

When she first heard that she was expected to do chores in a _mansion_ with an actual _butler_ her reaction was... not good. Kind of embarrassingly bad. Like apologize twice to Alfred and still wince at the memory bad. But it makes sense, and even Bruce does some. Take care of where you live. Like checking your own harness and safety gear before going up. Plus the cleaners aren't allowed into the east wing with its access to the cave.

She noticed something a long time ago but hasn't really felt comfortable asking about it. "So, can I ask you something?"

"Of course, Miss Grayson."

"See, it's that. Sometimes you call Bruce Mr Wayne, and sometimes you call him Master Bruce."

"Yes. Well." Alfred grins. "Mr Wayne is the correct form of address for the owner of the Wayne properties and master of Wayne Manor."

"And 'Master Bruce'?"

"Is the proper form of address for a young man who sometimes forgets just who used to change his nappies and wipe his arse."

* * *

Dixie has heard of a lot of these brands. Behind them are a bunch of companies that Dixie has maybe heard of a couple. And behind those are names she's maybe seen in the news but never really cared about. Wayne Finance, Wayne Industries, Wayne Logistics, Wayne Medical, Wayne Technologies. And behind those...

"A holding company," Lucius Fox explains, "is just a company whose business is to own other companies. To hold them."

"Okay yeah, I get that, but I don't get..." She can grasp a million, she thinks. Just about. A billion? "But I don't get Wayne Holdings. It's a hundred thousand million dollar company. Or I guess, it owns companies worth a hundred thousand million dollars?"

"Yes," Mr Fox says. He doesn't use that 'I'm being patient with you' voice some adults do when they answer a question. He actually is patient. "One hundred and five point seven billion dollars." Mr Fox's 'point seven' is seven hundred million dollars.

"But it's only five people! How can you do all that?" That's not even including Wayne Enterprises, Bruce's six point nine billion (six thousand nine hundred million) dollar personal fortune. Managed by a financial firm. That he owns.

Mr Fox shakes his head. "We don't. Money isn't the company, it's just a tool, the fuel that keeps the company moving. People are the company. Wayne Holdings manages the people who manage the other companies. Don't even bother trying to track every dollar out of a hundred billion. That's what accountants are for. Track the people who have access to the money."

Haly's Traveling Circus is the largest contemporary circus producer in the world with something like four thousand employees. Last year their total revenue was about eight hundred and fifty million dollars. Bruce Wayne makes one hundred and thirty-five million dollars a year personally.

Those hoverbikes are _cheap_.

* * *

* * *

Tuesday Cantrell brings marshmallow squares. Things go downhill from there.  
  
"I absolutely refuse to call bats your spirit animal. That's deeply offensive."

"I didn't say anything about spirit animals. I said bats represent something important for me."

Dixie rrrrreaaaally wishes she were anywhere else in the manor right now.

Is Cantrell Bruce's girlfriend? They don't act like it, but they spend a lot of time together. She seems to be friendly with Selina, so maybe it's like Selina's um secretary-catsitter that Dixie probably isn't supposed to know is also Selina's girlfriend. It's not that they're keeping secrets, Selina just hasn't mentioned it. Probably none of Dixie's business. Like Bruce and those models and actresses.  
  
Dixie looked up relationships online to try and figure Bruce and Selina out, and maybe they're in an _open relationship_? Those just seem kind of weird and complex to Dixie, but maybe it fits them?

Guh. Dixie makes up her mind that she's just going to get married, stay married, and avoid all this drama stuff.

The marshmallow squares are really good. They kind of taste like cinnamon.

* * *

Selina drops by to say hi, but she's off to New York overnight.

"Why?" Dixie scrunches her nose. "That town is dead."

"Look at her," Bruce sounds weirdly proud. "Grew up in Vegas, already a Gothamite."

"Haly's is originally from Gotham. That's why we do a revue here every year. This is our hometown. And New York really is dead."

"Good girl."

Shaking her head at them and sighing, Selina cuts in. "They also have galleries, and I am an art dealer. I'm going for wine and gossip. I'll be back tomorrow morning."

* * *

Homework is done and they've vacuumed the ground underneath the industrial scaffolding in the caves. It's not a waste of time according to Bruce. Things like food or machine parts or even throwing-bats (Dixie hasn't thought of a good name for Bruce's bat-themed shuriken yet) can fall through the grill and build up to a real mess.

Now it's armour-testing. "Again."

Dixie throughs herself into a series of floor-clattering flips and somersaults, ending with a sideways flip and a roll. Kipping up to her feet brings her face to bat-emblem with Bruce. No wait, he's in gear. Batman.

"Looked good."

"No." Dixie rolls her head from side to side. "It's this stupid helmet. I can't get used to it."

"Hm." Batman reaches up under her chin. "Here. We'll take this off and you can try it again with just the underarmour layer."

"All right." Br- Batman takes the helmet off her head. It's thinner and smaller than his cowl but Dixie just can't get used to the weight. The aramid underarmour is fine, but that helmet is bullshit.

The helmet gone, Dixie runs through a quick series of manoeuvres. Yep. Way better without the helmet. Dixie ends with a handstand in front of Batman again. "So much better."

"You're better than me at that."

"Yeah well, you weigh like five hundred pounds." Dixie returns to a stand. "Plus you're too tall. I'm probably going to be too tall for professional acrobatics. Mom and dad were both a bit tall."

"Hm. For the time being we can lose the helmet. You'll be on observation and training missions only for a long time. And people will be curious if you show up at school with the neck muscles of a jarhead."

* * *

For a man who has never seen the cave and grins whenever it's mentioned - "You think Wayne Manor was built on a sinkhole?" - Lucius Fox sure knows a lot about what's down there.

"These are some of Mr Wayne's private investments. Small tech firms specializing in research and development of gear for emergency workers. Some of it has military applications."

"Right." Dixie eyes the diagrams of Bruce's armour. The batcycles. Should Mr Fox really just have those spread casually across the library's table like that?

"Of course they also have business relationships with various Wayne Tech and Wayne Industries subsidiaries. These companies are small. They do great tech work but they don't have the resources to scale up for production. And some of their developments, you just can't get the costs down enough for production with current technology. Like the cape."

"Right, okay. But how do we end up with this stuff? Does Bruce just walk out of the building with it?"

Mr Fox laughs. "Almost. Bruce has access to technical data and schematics. He can even borrow prototypes for a while. He brings it to me and I find the resources to produce the gear. And since Bruce doesn't exactly advertise what he's wearing, no one at these companies knows he's using their equipment."

She knows how Mr Fox worked out that Bruce is Batman. Because he can look at all the gear his boss needs and put two and two together. But what she wants to know is "Why do you help him with all this?"

It's not his normal smile. It's not a nice smile. "I might be a rich man, but to Gotham cops I'm still just a Black man in a fancy car he obviously doesn't deserve. You think it bothers me if Batman's out there making them look bad?"

* * *

* * *

Wednesday Dixie cannot _believe_ what happened at school.

"So Kaelie and Emma - "

"Which Emma?"

"I already told you, the blonde one."

"You know three blonde Emmas."

"Blonde Emma who hangs out with Kaelie, _obviously_."

"Is she the one who doesn't like Avril?"

"No! That's blonde Emma who likes Ava."

"Likes, or likes-likes?"

"Not sure. Still investigating."

"This is more complicated than corporate negotiations."

"Wait 'till I tell you about other-blonde Emma and brunette Emma."

"Which brunette Emma?"

Bruuuuuuuce! Try to keep up!

* * *

When she's done dusting the sun room and living room in the central part of the manor, Dixie checks her phone.

 **Purrfectlysanecatlady** : Had to split a restaurant bill between 5 people yesterday  
 **Purrfectlysanecatlady** : Polynomials were involved  
 **Purrfectlysanecatlady** : Do your homework

* * *

In the background Bruce is working out to dad rock. Dixie tries to concentrate on the structure of the Wayne Foundation and its spending patterns. Bruce has been steadily ramping up the Foundation's funding since he turned eighteen. Slowly, so he didn't overwhelm the organization, but year after year of steady increases.

What even is this old guy noise? Sometimes Bruce will put a playlist on shuffle to time his cardio workouts. Which would be okay if his music wasn't so bad.

One bite at a time, the Wayne Foundation is consuming the network of bribes and favours that run Gotham. Some day the corrupt politicians and dirty business people will realize that all the old money is just a drop in the bucket compared to the Wayne Foundation. Most of them will fall in line with the new way of doing business. The ones who don't can be replaced.

_It's too late to try to run, we run the city._

Oh gaaaaaawd Bruce's music is so awful. Hasn't he ever heard of Cherry Bullet?

* * *

* * *

On Thursday Cantrell just... shows up. She doesn't even have treats this time. She shoves a blue and black plush bat at Bruce. "Here. I named it Nightwing."

"... All right."

After that Bruce and Cantrell sit in the library and say maybe three words to each other. She hardly even stays an hour.

What the heck is going on? Should she tell Selina about this? Does Selina already know? They all went on a date together, didn't they? Was it just a date or a _date_ -date? Why are grownups so stupidly complicated?

Ugh. This is worse than corporate finance.

* * *

Today's workout involves running around in the west wing's empty ballroom, tossing a fitness ball back and forth. Alfred is exercising his neck muscles by gritting his teeth and wincing every time Bruce or Dixie come within ten feet of a window. The ballroom has a lot of windows.

* * *

After cooldown Dixie learns how to fake a document chain. Specifically, Bruce is showing her how to put together an order for the military-grade jet fuel that the batcycles guzzle. There are legit civilian uses for it, but none that can be connected to Bruce Wayne.

Gotham has the highest per capita number of drone clubs and rocketry clubs in the US. Almost all of them have members on paper only.

* * *

The second layer of armour is made of flexible laminates designed to protect against ballistic and penetrating trauma. "Don't bet your life on it," Batman says. "Your job will be to stay in the car and stay out of sight."

"Gotcha." Dixie rolls, flips, and tumbles in a series of circles around Batman. "This is good. It's not bunching or pulling anywhere." Dixie rolls to a crouch and brings her arm in front of her face like she's posing with a cape. "I'm Batman."  
  
"I'm going to call the media and I'm going to tell everyone your name is Batbrat."

* * *

* * *

Friday they watch _Midnighter v Apollo: Eve Of Justice_. Dixie has already seen it a couple of times, but Bruce has Opinions and needs to share them.

"You have conclusive evidence that powerful superhumans exist, so you've decided to mug the friendly one and beat him to death in a back alley. Good plan. Fucking brilliant. I see no fucking way this could go horribly wrong."

Selina throws a pillow at him.

"The military gave a blatantly unstable man access to secret technology so he could build a weapon? And instead of assigning a sergeant to shoot him in the head if he tries anything funny they just fucking let him turn this thing loose in a city?"

Selina tackles him and shoves a pillow over his face. " _Lhts hf whmn hrr nhmd Hghthh. Whh fhhkhn khhrs hf thr mhms have thhh shm nhm?_ "

Bruuuuce! It's just a movie! Stop complaining and watch!

**Author's Note:**

> Not compatible with Batfamily Moments, which I wrote according to an old timeline that I abandoned. I'm going to slowly cannabilize Batfamily Moments for parts and then remove it from the Billionaires Gone Wild series while leaving it on AO3. Please treasure it as a priceless glimpse of my inability to keep track of my own continuity.


End file.
